Counselling Services

The Counselling Services consolidate the work of the School Social Work Unit, the Student Guidance Team, the Media Counselling Centre and the Wellness Mind Centre. Given the current unprecedented challenges, the service addresses different emotional health issues across the units and via different platforms.

Youth Emotional Health

The following services were offered under different categories:

Community Youth Wellness

Project STEP, supported by HSBC’s 150th Anniversary Charity Programme, was initiated to promote emotional wellness and provide support to youth in need. A brand designed mobile truck, HKFYG Moving Wellness , visited over 120 locations, which included schools and different communities. The purpose was to encourage “wellness time’’, or a time for either being alone or with others, filling the moment with positivity and caring. An interactive educational theatre called “Click on your choice” was introduced to about 50 secondary schools teaching students how to handle their emotions. Under the Psychiatric Service Scheme and newly launched Chinese Medicine Service Scheme, immediate psychological assessment, psychiatric consultation and medication were provided for around 60 eligible youth.

School Stationing Services

Over the last year, 22 primary schools and 19 kindergartens were served through the Student Guidance Team. A total of 1,201 developmental and prevention activities were organised for students, parents and teachers. 454 cases and 21,595 consultations related to emotion, family, behaviour and study issues were handled. Case supervisions, crisis support and professional training were also rendered to school social worker employed by primary schools. Nine schools with 11 school social workers were served.

School Stationing Services were provided for 35 secondary schools, of which 21 were served by the 12 Youth S.P.O.Ts and the other 14 by the School Social Work Unit. A total of 3,534 cases were handled, while 21,362 consultations and 6,256 programmes and group sessions took place in 2019-20.

During both the period of the social unrest and the pandemic, it was found that students were beset by anxiety and difficulties due to all the changes that they had to face. As a result, the School Social Work Unit began the HKFYG_SSW Instagram Channel, to provide timely emotional support. In six months, more than 200 posts, videos and stories were published, with a total of 64,000 views.

Simultaneously, the school social workers reacted promptly and maintained active engagement with students through online counselling, online group work and workshops, all in hopes of maintaining a strong balance of body, mind and soul.

Wellness for Youth School-based Programmes

Over the last year, young people had to face and cope with numerous and unprecedented challenges. With schools moving online, emotional problems among students become more common. To that end, the Wellness for Youth schoolbased programmes were conducted in 50 secondary schools, with a total of 385 talks, group sessions, workshops and mass programmes benefiting students, teachers and parents.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Project COACH - Special Educational Needs (SEN) Student Supporting Scheme provided SEN School Stationing Services, groups and individual training for SEN students and parents, particularly those with dyslexia, autism or hyperactive disorder. Apart from enhancing learning motivation, effective learning skills and resolving students’ emotional and behavioural problems, the service also emphasised the connection of school and family to provide a better learning environment to students. There were 24 primary schools served with 2,524 training sessions. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, 15% of service sessions were unable to be delivered to clients directly.

Project NES embraces the belief of maximising Special Education Needs (SEN) students’ potential. Standing for Nurture, Engage, and let their talent Shine, the project kicked off this year with positive feedback from the over 400 attendees.

Love Education

The Love and Sex Value Education Scheme, sponsored by the Quality Education Fund since 2013, aims to cultivate positive values at interpersonal relationships. Over the last year, 219 programme sessions were provided to 1,839 students, teachers, parents and social workers from over 30 schools and units. To emphasise these values, a “Love and Sex Value Education Manual”, “Value Card” and short videos were produced to help schools to launch love and sex education.

Resilience Building

The following were offered:

• The Understanding Adolescent Project (Primary) provided a wide range of programmes to Primary 4 to 6 students in 50 primary schools.

• School-based After-School Learning and Support Programme planned to provide 109 programme sessions as extra learning experiences to underprivileged students in six primary schools. Due to the pandemic, 80% of service sessions were cancelled.

• Healthy School Projects , supported by the Beat Drugs Fund, was organised in six secondary schools. A total of 122 programme sessions were delivered to over 3,134 students.

Further Schooling

DSE@27771112

One-stop services including talks and workshops, real-time online tutoring, online mock interviews, as well as practical information were provided to support DSE candidates. The “Real-time online tutoring project” was conducted during class suspensions to better prepare F.6 students for the HKDSE. Over 600 students and 70 prospective teachers participated. Altogether, there were 98 sessions of different programmes which saw the participation of 4,995 students and parents. Trained social workers and volunteers also offered immediate guidance and counselling through hotline and online platforms, handling a total of 4,234 hotline cases and 5,829 online cases.

Life Planning Services for School Students

PLUS-Experiential Learning Series is a learning package for school students which focuses on: Positive Values, Life Planning, Unique Experiences and Service Learning. A total of 603 programme sessions were provided to students and parents.

Media Counselling Hotline Services

Youthline 27778899 provided an immediate and convenient channel for young people to seek help or support on the phone. In the reporting period, 244,706 incoming calls were registered and a total number of 43,116 cases were handled. Problems relating to emotions, mental health, and schooling were the top three concerns.

Online Counselling

uTouch Cyber Youth Outreach Service adopted a proactive approach to identify and engage youth at risk of social exclusion aged 6-24 through an online platform. Tailormade follow up services including, online counselling, offline interviews, and community activities, were rendered. Media production, volunteer services, and online programmes were the means to re-engage online youth with the community. This year, 2,127 youth at risk were engaged and encouraged to participate. A total of 4,907 participated in both online and offline activities. Partnerships with other community stakeholders and organisations were also formed to foster cross-sectoral collaboration to address the needs of at-risk youth.

Open Up is an online text platform designed specifically to cater for the needs of youngsters experiencing emotional distress as a result of family issues, interpersonal relationships or academic stress. Supported by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Federation, together with the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of The University of Hong Kong and two other agencies began round-the-clock 24/7 counselling services to youth. From April 2019 to March 2020, 24,254 chat sessions were provided.

Media Education

Sponsored by the Quality Education Fund, Project NET developed a comprehensive media literacy curriculum for school students. As of March 2020, 20 secondary and 35 primary schools were enrolled in the project, taking part in classes and workshops for students and teachers. 30 student teams competed in the Media Literacy Video Contest to promote ethical use of media in creative ways. A parallel service of digital parenting talks were also delivered to 150 parents. In this second year of the New Media Literacy Education Competition, 14 teams of teachers from primary and secondary schools participated.

Counselling Support during the Protests

The disruption to daily life in Hong Kong during the protests, from June to November 2019, saw young people particularly affected emotionally. During this period, Youthline 27778899 and uTouch handled 743 cases related to social unrest, with ten percent of cases identified as those related to frustration, emotional instability, helplessness and hopelessness and, in some cases, suicidical ideation.

Counselling services had to therefore be strengthened by manpower and service hour extensions so as to offer instant and timely emotional support to youngsters.

Education Services

The Federation continues to provide quality education through two non-profit making kindergartens-cum-nurseries; one nonprofit making kindergarten; one aided primary school and one Direct Subsidy Scheme secondary school, as well as the Continuous Learning Centre, which seeks to encourage young people to pursue lifelong learning through less formal platforms.

Children’s Well-being During Class Suspension

During the suspension of classes, children’s well-being was a priority. Apart from providing school-based thematic learning materials and audio books to facilitate learning at home, teachers also wrote letters to show their care and support. Guidelines on home based fine motor skills and gross motion skills activities were provided to parents to ensure a balanced development even though confined at home. A picture book, School Suspension, was especially designed from a child’s perspective to alleviate their fear of school suspension and the pandemic.

Pre-primary Education Learning through Parent-child Play

Play is essential in children’s development, and is both educational and affordable. To enhance parents’ understanding of the benefits of play and to empower their abilities, teachers guided parents to design parent-child games using everyday items, such as towels, blankets, toilet rolls and clips. Parents’ original ideas were consolidated into a series of three play guides, categorising their benefits to cognitive ability, fine motor skills and gross motor skills. More parent-child play improves mutual understanding and helps with emotional development.

Integrating Play in the Picture Book Approach

The kindergartens have been practicing Picture Book Approach since 2013, resulting in significant improvement in children’s language ability, logical thinking and creativity. Taking children’s learning to the next level, play was integrated into the Picture Book Approach this year. Play Books, that is, books with embedded games were read under the teachers’ guidance. While reading, children interacted with the book and created their own story plots, stimulating their creativity and imagination.

Primary Education

This was a very unusual year with so much education disrupted. However, the HKFYG Lee Shau Kee Primary School is committed to the following:

Innovative Curriculum

The innovative curriculum of the Primary School is aimed at nurturing self-directed learners. In class, students learn basic subject knowledge and develop generic skills, as well as positive attitudes by means of enjoyable and effective learning activities and tasks. After school, students spend their spare time reading, selfdirected learning and doing physical exercise.

Life Education

The School incorporated life education elements into the curriculum and activities to help students achieve balance in physical, psychological, intellectual, social and moral development. Morning and weekly assemblies, class and school activities with specific themes constitute the school-based life education curriculum.

Young Maker

Young Maker is designed for Primary 4 to 6 students. All learning activities of Young Maker are problem-solving tasks based on problems from everyday life, the environment or the world. With the “learning by doing” approach, Young Maker provides a platform for students to further develop their critical thinking skills, communication skills and creativity.

However, this year, during class suspensions, both online live lessons and video clips were used to facilitate students’ learning at home. Teachers made use of a variety of learning platforms and apps such as QUIZIZZ, EDpuzzle, Google form and KAHOOT. This enabled teachers to assess students’ learning progress, and the assessment data helped teachers to focus on areas that students needed help most during the online live lessons. Since students were confined at home, PE teachers especially designed a series of stretching exercises and eye exercises to reduce the impact of increased screen time.

Secondary Education

This was an especially challenging year for students given class suspensions during the pandemic.

Learning and Teaching

The curriculum of HKFYG Lee Shau Kee College (HLC) continues to nurture leaders of tomorrow to serve the community by embodying what is called ‘3S’: Self-directed Learning, Self-discipline and Selfefficacy. The College has made great efforts in broadening the curriculum, catering for students’ learning needs. Literature in English and Visual Arts were introduced in senior curriculum. The College also has explored introducing Physical Education and Music as electives for HKDSE, as well as international curriculum (GCE A-Level).

Self-Directed Learning (SDL) was incorporated into daily learning. Students showed they were well-prepared before attending class with the help of guided learning plans. Teachers explored various e-learning strategies to assist self-directed learning. Moreover, as the sole partner with The University of Hong Kong in MOOC (Mass Open Online Courses), students were encouraged to pursue courses from worldwide universities at their own pace. The MOOC mentorship programme was shortlisted The Reimagine Education Awards 2019 in London, which was hailed as the “Oscars” of Education, and HLC was the very first secondary school in Hong Kong entering the final round of this competition.

Since students were familiar with SDL, it was relatively smooth to arrange e-learning at home during the class suspensions. Five online live lessons were arranged every Monday to Friday to supplement students’ e-learning. The curriculum was not affected much during the epidemic.

Students continued to excel in speech and the S4 students were awarded the champion in the Putonghua Choral Speaking Competition in the 71st Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival.

Student Development

Working groups in the Student Affairs Committee collaborated closely to promote positive education by “Wisdom in Action (WIA) Programme”. Various activities enhanced life skills and proper values. HLC focused on “Caring for others” this year, and the involvement of Form Teachers in WIA lessons, thematic learning weeks, service learning and the ‘3S’ award programme provided diversified learning experiences to nurture students’ wholeperson development.

In order to strengthen the resilience of students, other than gaining external support from Clinical Psychologist, Educational Psychologist and Speech Therapist, an extra School Social Worker and Student Counsellor joined the team and provided timely support for those in need. Online support, such as group training and individual counselling services, were continuously provided during the school suspension period. Furthermore, systemic life planning education for different levels was set up in order to facilitate students explore the meaning of life. Students were guided to set personal goals and plans for their career pathway. Through joining the Buddy programme, HLC worked collaboratively with New World Development Company Limited to provide a wide range of careers related activities and broaden students’ horizons.

To nurture Leaders of Tomorrow, HLC gave high autonomy to students to organise and lead programme activities. Extracurricular activities, Form committees, Ambassadors Schemes, House committees, Prefects and Students’ Union not only nurtured students’ leadership skills, but also provided platforms for students to show their talents. HLC also collaborated with The HKFYG Leadership Institute to increase students’ awareness of the global issues by inviting global leaders to share with the students.

HLC will continue to actualise its vision to provide the best nurturing opportunities that unleash students’ potential, inspire excellence and cultivate lifelong learners and leaders of tomorrow.

Continuous Learning

Affected by the social unrest and the pandemic, planned programmes were very much disrupted throughout this past year. The Continuous Learning Centre (CLC) has been striving to enhance talent training by organising a great variety of professional programmes. This year, CLC has made a concerted effort in offering courses in emotional support, health care, and careerrelated training series, including courses in mediation, counselling, paramedic, building inspection, floral arrangement, STEM tutors’ training, and playgroup tutors’ training. In order to minimise the risk of people congregating during the outbreak, CLC adopted the Zoom online teaching mode to facilitate students’ learning.

Five programmes were accredited by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications. They were, Mediation Training, Playgroup Tutors’ Training, Music Tutors’ Training, and Clinic Assistants’ Training. These courses are included in the list of reimbursable courses under the Continuing Education Fund (CEF). Speech and Language Training accredited by Training Qualifications UK and Professional Florist Training accredited by the Korean Beauty and Health License Association proved to be immensely popular courses.

2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the collaboration between CLC and The Xu Beihong Arts Committee. Apart from organising classes in Diploma in Visual Arts Education with Renmin University of China, CLC also successfully organised the Xu Beihong Cup which is given at the International Youth and Children Art Competition. The award ceremony also included an exhibition of prize-winning artwork.

HKFYG Living Life Academy (LLA) is keen on coordinating courses developed by and, offering administrative support to all Youth S.P.O.Ts and professional units. Aimed at promoting the pleasure of living and fun in learning, LLA continued to manage online course platforms and Learning Magazine. This year, two issues of Learning Magazine were published, featuring eyecatching stories and columns on professional knowledge and the latest trends in different industries.

Supported by the Social Welfare Development Fund and in collaboration with Youth S.P.O.Ts and Parent Support Network, LLA is now conducting two research projects on “Youth’s Online Learning Experiences and Willingness” and “Youth’s Conflict Resolution and Their Understanding of the Willingness for Mediation” respectively. The research outcome is expected to provide valuable references for youth workers and schools to plan the strategies in teaching and counselling. Furthermore, LLA launched an online platform “E+ Learning” to encourage young learners to build up their learning profiles. This userfriendly platform assisted users in preparing systematic e-learning resume, so as to allow young learners to have a clearer orientation in their personal growth via continuous learning, thus developing significant and meaningful academic and career paths.

Parenting Services

The Parent Support Network (PSN) and the Family Life Education Units (FLE) provided both internet and community based services, which included Parent-child Mediation Services, Educational Talks, Workshops, Self-Learning Groups and Family Activities for parents and children, as well as continuous learning and mutual support.

parent-child communication”. There was an attendance of more than 1,000 parents, with a parental brochure was published with more than 20,000 delivered to parents.

Parental E-learning Services

The COVID-19 pandemic affected many face to face services. This meant going on online especially for parental e-learning workshops and sharing groups which were organised from March 2020. Subjects included Parental Education, Interest Development and Parent-Child Activities, with more than 200 persons were served.

Collaborative Programmes

Parental Education Talks Series

For the second year, the Hong Kong Institute of Construction (HKIC) joined as co-organiser for a talk on how to “Support children to build the future”. Dr. Alman Chan Siu-cheuk, Principle of Christian Zheng Sheng College, shared parenting experiences and the strategies to face the future. More than 150 parents attended the talk.

Service Highlights

Parental and Family Education Programmes

Since 2018, the Parental Education Curriculum, consisting of the following topics: Nurturing Children; Strengthening Parentchild Relationships and Handling Parent-child Conflicts, has been offered. The Unit organised 350 Parental and Family Life Education Programmes, with a total of 27,863 service attendance.

Website for Parent Support Network (psn.hkfyg.hk)

Professionals were invited to share their expertise and experience on parenting and related issues online. Useful information, videos and articles were uploaded daily on social and public media platforms. Parents were also encouraged to participate in online groups, workshops or via messages. PSN had a record of 271,494 views on all online platforms this year.

Parent-child Mediation Service

Both online and district based mediation and related case services were provided to help handle parent-child conflicts for a total of 1,046 service attendance.

Responding to the Protests Parental Talks Series

Since July 2019, and in response to the protests, PSN has organised series of Parental Talks. Themes focused on “How to provide emotional support to their children” and “Effective

Jockey Club FamConnect Project

To promote family harmony, PSN co-organised with the HKCSS Jockey Club FamConnect Project for a series of activities, including a visit to Noah’s Ark, Latte-art and Cooking Workshops. Over 300 parents and their children participated.

Publications

Parenting Knot-Nots

Parenting Knot-Nots was published, which included 30 negative phrases usually used by parents to their children. These phrases were categorised according to type of impact, which included manipulation, insults, emotional abuse and intimidation. The message of the book to parents was to be wary and stay positive.

Survey: The relationship between COVID-19 and Parental Stress

This survey was conducted in February to March 2020, with more than 220 parents taking part. Over 60% of respondents indicated that they were suffering from high levels of stress, while over 70% indicated that they were having negative emotions including depressed moods, helplessness and worry. The findings of the Survey provided emotional and knowledge support to the parents to combat their stress.